Euro slides after Greece rejects Eurozone’s bailout offer as “unacceptable”
Greece has rejected the Eurozone’s “unacceptable” opening bailout offer as talks between finance ministers in Brussels broke down without an agreement on Monday.
Negotiations broke up after just four hours as Greece angrily rejected the proposal that it continue with the terms of its current €172bn (£128bn) bailout, triggering the euro to drop against the dollar to as low as $1.323.
A leaked draft of a Greek statement on the situation revealed that the Greeks branded the offer as “absurd” and “unacceptable”, leading to a breakdown in talks over the issue for the second time in five days.
It states that Eurozone ministers are "wasting their time" by sticking to the existing bailout terms.
Eurozone ministers are trying to reach an agreement with Greece’s newly elected anti-austerity government before the country’s bailout expires on 28 February. Failure to reach an agreement by that time would leave Greece’s banks without funding and would likely lead to Greece’s exit from the Eurozone.
Meanwhile, a Eurogroup statement reveals Greece would agree to a six-month “technical extension” of the current bailout.
It reads:
The Greek authorities expressed their intention to request a six months technical extension of the current programme as an intermediate step. This would bridge the time for the Greek authorities and the Eurogroup to work on a follow-up arrangement.…The Eurogroup is favourably disposed to such a request by the Greek authorities.